survivalist
– I follow a lot of websites and Blogs on a daily basis. They are all over the map in their points of view. And I prefer it this way so that I know I’m getting a good cross section of things.
– Some of those I follow could be called survivalist or doomsters. Of course, long time readers will know I’d have to have a lot of cheek to be throwing that stone, myself, since my views about the future of the world are pretty bleak.
– Regardless, I still think I have a bit of the moderate in me. After all, I haven’t stocked up on a year’s worth of supplies, an arsenal of weapons, moved to beyond the beyond and gone off the grid <give me a few weeks, eh?>.
– The article, below, is written by a fellow who’s pretty deep into survivalism. But, having said that, I don’t think he’s far wrong. In this article, he’s gone over things pretty closely as to what he sees wrong and where it is all headed. And I have to say it is well written, well thought out and well worth reading.
– Give it a look and see what the folks are thinking who are beginning to get down in the trenches. You may find that a lot of it speaks to you.
= = = = = = = * = = = = = = = * = = = = = = =
It’s taken me a little while to publish this 50th issue, because I have been pondering some deep questions about the future of humanity upon this planet.
At issue here is the notable accelerating environmental collapse factors, and how we have singularily failed to stop a single one of these issues. It is now plainly evident that we cannot stop, and the following short long essay is why.
I wrote this in a couple of hours on February 11th, late at night in one sitting. I’m going to take a break now as it’s time to let this all sink in, for you and for me. I will return to publishing… when I feel like it!
Collapse Is Built In
We need to build a new way of living; therefore we must design it from the ground up, as this present model has demonstrated itself incapable of self-change.
I see this as needing to completely unplug and to disconnect; to remove our dependencies from the system on what we require to survive; to provide for these things for ourselves as much as possible; and to share them amongst ourselves completely outside of the present system of control and distribution and material exploitation.
Unplugging is also the fastest non-violent way to bring down the machine. It is this machine itself, fueled by us, that is headed towards self-destruction.
The very existence of the First World existence (living standards and demands) encourages the rest of the world to seek after the same things as we do. This in turn will always lead to increasing levels of consumption throughout the world.
I have come to understand that the notion that we will voluntarily restrict ourselves and our levels of consumption is provably false, this we will never do. We may in fact be completely incapable of doing this as a society (which I do think is true now). We even experience extreme difficulty in doing this on an individual level. This alone demonstrates the extremity of our present situation.
Therefore, multiply our level of consumption and living standards by the population of the earth. 7 billion people are seeking to “come up” to the first world expectations, or some higher measure then what they already have (including us in the First World). Many could never acheive this as their environments have already been entirely denuded and stripped of resources. But the point is, this is simply not possible for all of humanity and has been widely documented. It is completely and factually unachievable. We do not produce enough food, energy or material goods for this to happen. There is not enough resources left either.
But these living / lifestyle standards for the entire population is also highly undesirable too, as the Earth itself can only truly sustain one lifestyle above all else, and this is the hunter / gatherer lifestyle, of small groups of people living and using local resources. Alll other lifestyles require increasing levels of consumption beyond true sustainability and eventually results in systematic breakdown of the Earth’s natural systems as population grows.
It was the abundance of energy the broke the imbalance of human population and the natural equilibrium of living. Once this was broken, it was never regained as energy sources were continually exploited to greater and greater levels, fueling human population growth of the planet, while destroying and consuming the populations of everything else. Extensive species extinctions have always followed after growing human populations. It was only where this did not happen did human populations remain low enough that sustainable living still existed, but even these areas eventually were “discovered” and then consumed, and have now experienced the same and often, worse results.
Everywhere this natural threshold was exceeded, resulted in environmental collapse.
Here in the First World, it has been exceeded by ten thousand percent. This is leading to a breakdown of natural systems the world over, as the First World now imports the majority of its consumption and materialism. This is also now completely irreversible, due to non-sustainable population levels now in existence world wide. Nothing can now stop this decline. Nor can we simply “stop” our consumption as has been often suggested (including by me). We neither have the will to do so, or even the means anymore.
In America and many other places in the world today (especially the First World) it is actually illegal to do this, as we are forced into participation into higher material standards and consumption. An important point, but not my main one. This just demonstrates how we have made it more impossible.
We are dealing with a form of Jevon’s Paradox in every human endeavor. Every efficiency and “gain” that we develop in technology or energy usage, allegedly to help us control our consumption, simply leads us to even more consumption. This in turn continues to fuel higher population levels.
The only solution to this is a total energy collapse, with horrific results for humanity. If I may ignore that for huge topic for now, all other human-devised solutions are self-defeating and completely unrealistic because they do not actually gain both efficiency and reductions as alleged. We always find ways to take advantage of these things and increase our numbers, instead of decrease our actualy consumption.
– More… ➡
